Orchestral manoeuvres in the dark pit

Steve Meacham

Most opera conductors love to absorb the audience's adoration. It comes at least three times every performance: when they march into the orchestra pit before the overture; when they repeat the drama after the interval, and when they are called on stage at the finale.

Sadly, Brian Castles-Onion, the conductor of La Traviata, the first Opera on the Harbour, will face only the third accolade. If all goes well, the audience will ask ''who's he?''. If everything goes pear-shaped, it will blame him.

After ''what happens if it rains?'', the most frequently asked question about this outdoor La Traviata is ''what will it sound like?''

''My first question, when I was asked to do this, was 'who's the sound engineer','' Castles-Onion admits. ''When I knew it was going to be Tony [David Cray] my worries ceased.''

Unusually, the role of the sound engineer is as vital to the success of this $11.5 million production as that of the conductor.

''I'm accustomed to being the quiet one,'' Cray jokes, ''but this job is different. I've got one button: the 'PA-Off' button. If I accidentally press that, what we have is 'Sculpture on the Harbour'.''

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Cray contributed to the acoustic design of the enclosed orchestral pit beneath the stage, which is effectively a floating recording studio. But how will the voices of the singers on stage be married seamlessly with the sound of the orchestra below?

''This is an area I try not to focus on because it can become inflammable,'' Cray says. ''I came to a knot-in-the-stomach realisation that this [production] is so exposed, it presented us with unique problems.'' The singers were already down to wear wireless ''Madonna mics'' but he convinced Opera Australia's artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, that they would also need to wear in-ear monitors.

''They're standard in rock and roll,'' Cray says. ''Everyone from Kylie [Minogue] to Hugh Jackman wears them.'' But Cray knew the opera singers would resist. The soprano Emma Matthews, one of two Violettas, raised her concerns at the first rehearsal.

Cray reassured the cast that each singer would be given their own earpiece, which they could try out at rehearsals or at home, but the decision to wear them or not would be each singer's decision. ''If Alfredo and Violetta are singing a duet at opposite ends of this vast stage, the [natural] time delay is going to be a semiquaver,'' he says.

Castles-Onion says he has never before seen an orchestra so excited. ''These players are the cream of the crop, and they just can't wait.''

One big difference between a conventional opera staging and this one is that the singers will not be able to see the conductor. Castles-Onion's image will be broadcast on what he calls ''a giant IMAX screen behind the audience''.

Neither the singers nor the orchestra members have worked this way before and it did cause problems in the early rehearsals.

''For the first week, the pianist and I were on the side of the stage, hoping the singers would look at the image of me on the large screen behind Francesca [Zambello, the director],'' he says. ''Opera singers, being opera singers … kept looking at me, so the production people moved us to the back corner where they can't see us without breaking their neck.''

At an early news conference, one elderly critic complained that part of the joy of going to an opera was seeing the orchestra at work. Terracini gave him short shrift, saying it was an outdated view.

What does Castles-Onion think? ''Lots of people coming to this show haven't been to the theatre before, let alone the opera. They won't miss seeing the conductor. As the conductor, I am the one driving the story. If the audience is looking at me they must be bored, so I can't be doing my job well enough.''

As for rain, the performances will proceed if there is light rain, and patrons will be given a free poncho. Performances will only be cancelled if the weather poses a threat to the performers' safety, or that of the audience.

In that event, patrons will be entitled to a refund, or an exchange of tickets for any performance for which tickets are available.

La Traviata plays at the Royal Botanic Gardens from March 24to April 15.